Category: The Pine Fairy
This particular set of songs takes place when the Pine Fairy is transitioning from the fiery redness of adulthood to the electrical wisdom of old age. But for a Pine Fairy, old age is much longer than youth. Their adulthood lasts about 60-80 years, while their old age continues for about 4,000 years after that.
Pine Fairies first set off on their own when they are around 20 years old, wandering away from the pine grove of their youth. At this point, they still have enough red blood to be visible to humans. You might spot one walking around during the day. They look much like a human, but a bit taller and thinner, and are likely to be wearing blue jeans, a red t-shirt, brown walking shoes, and carrying a brown paper bag with a sandwich in it. By the time they are 80, this outfit will have been replaced by a robe, nightcap, and shoes made of soft swaddled cloth. But you are unlikely to ever see an 80 year old fairy, because by this point they have so little blood left, that they are more or less invisible. Not to mention that they live deep within the woods and rarely leave their home before dusk.
It is possible though, if walking through a deep forest, to happen upon a Pine Fairy’s house. These are generally small, about the size of a trailer, but more squarish in shape. They may be painted green with a red roof, or dark brown with a mustard roof. If you do happen upon one, go inside! There you will find the iron pots they cook with hanging against the wall, and their dry goods stocked up in mason jars. A bed made of iron will be pushed into one corner with a quilt lying neatly upon it. Help yourself to a stool and take a seat at their kitchen table, where you will surely find a beverage waiting. For although you cannot see them, they can see you, and will be happy you came for a visit.
One day Pine Fairies leave even old age behind, but not to die. Instead, they grow so gold and so silvery that they become indistinguishable from the angels and go to live in the sky beside them. Sometimes these risen fairies will appear to us as the shape of a bone flying through clouds. Like fairy godmothers, they can grant wishes and make heart’s desires come true. So if you ever think you see a bone flying through the sky, stop and make a wish. The Pine Fairies will hear you.
I decided I should give a little background about the Pine Fairy, so you won’t think he is just a whimsical concept I made up! For starters, he is a fairy, of course, but that is a broad term describing all humanoids on different frequencies from our own. Some fairies, such as the Pine Fairy, are very similar to us, with emotions we could relate to, while other fairies are more inhuman, with emotional responses we might find bizarre. As a rule, the more fairies resemble us in shape and size, the more their thought processes mirror our own. And the more likely we are to see them.
Pine Fairies are symbiotic with Pine Trees and share many of their gifts. A Pine Fairy gains in magical power primarily through the experience of sorrow. Over time, grief hollows these fairies out, and colors like silver and gold pour into them to fill up the hollow places. These colors connect the fairy to heaven and the angels and he becomes a conduit for bringing this pure, uplifted energy into our reality.
Pine Fairies are linked to the evening of the day and the season of Autumn. For many fairies, it is forever the same time of year and the same time of day. This is not true for Pine Fairies, although time in their world is skewed to stretch out the hours of dusk and nightfall and condense the hours of morning and day. Likewise, the seasons of autumn and winter are stretched, while the seasons of spring and summer are compacted.
Pine Fairies become loners in their old age and spread out far and wide across the globe, rarely encountering one another. This isolation drives sadness even deeper into their bones. They do interact with other species though, and tend to be friends with many ‘inanimate objects’ such as canes, jars, and grandfather clocks.
They like to walk, especially at night, accompanied by a cane or walking stick. Pine Fairies are delicate beings and it is comforting to have a burly piece of wood with them, much as a woman might like a man to lean upon. They gain knowledge from the silver beams of moon and stars. They will walk by a river if one is near, for they can glean still other forms of knowledge from the moonbeams that float in the water.
All Pine Fairies are male. They do not use sexual reproduction. They are born inside pine cones, nestled beside the seeds. As youngsters, the Pine Trees feed them, shelter them, and teach them some of life’s basics, but eventually the fairies grow independent. And while they frequently choose to live among Pine Trees as adults, it is not a necessity, just as a man need not live in the same town as his mother.
Pine fairies enjoy many of the same foods we do, such as peas, cornbread, and cake. As young men (when they are the most red and human-like), they may even eat meat. In this most burly and masculine time of their life, they have even been known to brawl with one another and possibly kill. But as they grow older, grief eats away their bone marrow and withers their muscles. One by one their red blood cells die and they become empty shells of the men they were before. This is the time when their life is really beginning.
This is a story about a little man the Pine Fairy notices is stuck to the side of one of his mason jars, just as he was about to clean it. Instead, he is able to set the little guy free to begin a new life and possibly start a new family. He is happy to learn the small fairy’s story. Although tragic from our perspective, the tiny fairy has a detached perspective on all he has experienced and sees it as part of a greater picture that is still unfolding.
What kind of fairy is the small man? I am not sure. Considering I ate paw paws and cornbread before sleeping and heard this song during the night, a baby corn fairy or a paw paw fairy would be my top choices. Probably corn, because corn fairies seem to have a detached, inhuman nature that is very accepting of death and are frequently engaged in emotionless violence.
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My daddy he was a woodworking man and
he had six fine sons to share his name.
Three were big and three were small,
but still my father loved us all the same.
He bounced the big ones on his knee and
the little ones he placed in a candy dish.
He said the big ones would be his pride and
the little ones they would grant his final wish.
Many of the Brothers were sent to fight a war.
Other of the brothers were left within a jar.
One days when we were fourteen,
cannonballs and bullets filled the sky.
Daddy packed up three sandwiches and
kissed the three large brothers all goodbye.
He said, “Now you must remember sons, that
there will come a day when life is done for all.
What matters most is you must not cry,
just stand up straight and look death in the eye, real tall.”
Many of the Brothers were sent to fight a war.
Other of the brothers were left within a jar.
We watched the brothers vanish
in the distance as dad held us in his hand.
He said, “I love you my small sons,
now it’s time to grant a wish for your old man.”
Then he dropped us all in a mason jar and
he shook us hard until two of us had died.
Then he fell on the floor and shook as though
his wiring had been shattered from inside.
Then he quivered till he grew real still and
I knew that the only brother left was me;
Just one tiny seed remained from
what had once been a big family.
Many of the brothers were sent to fight a war.
Other of the brothers were left within a jar.
I was of the brothers left within a jar.
Download MP3: Brothers